Gateway Documents

I believe that for every situation, there's a song.

Today I'm thinking about a Willie Nelson song. The lyrics go like this: "Mamas don't let your babies grow up to be cowboys..."

If I were a songwriter, I'd paraphrase and my song lyrics would be: "Mamas don't let your babies be born in NYC."

No names here; just the facts. This is the Internet, and I'm not making it any easier for the id thieves than it already is. My adult son was born in the big apple. We moved. In subsequent years, my name changed, legally. Now that our adopted state requires a birth certificate to renew a driver's license, I decided to order my kid a new birth certificate copy with the mother's name corrected. Easy enough--download the b.c. application from NYC DOHMH website, send in the payment check and all required identification to the NYC Department of Health aka DOH!

Since January 2010,  I've sent--and NYCDOH  has received--my driver's license, my son's driver's license, his NYC baptismal certificate, my court issued name change document, a letter to NYCDOH, signed by my son and witnessed by a notary, signed application for a corrected birth certificate, stamped self addressed envelope, phone numbers for both of us and money.

NYCDOH cashed my checks for $55 March 3, 2010. And still, my son does not have his birth certificate. He has the original,--with the ragged edges, the scotch taped folds, the crossed out name... DOH!

This is his problem, you might say. It doesn't concern anyone else.Oh yeah?

Google "birth certificate fraud." It's been done before.

Fake birth certificates is big business. A birth certificate is a gateway document, a "breeder" document. Birth certificate= social security card=driver's license=bank accounts=credit cards. Use your imagination. If you don't have any imagination, read the headlines: Bombers used fake id's.

Who knows about this? If they open and read their mail: Mayor Michael Bloomberg, NY Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, Michelle Obama...

It comes down to this. The New York City Department of Health took my money in payment for a corrected birth certificate for my son. After 9 and a half months, they still have not provided my son with his birth certificate, that he paid for.

If he doesn't have his birth certificate, who the %#&! does?